For purposes of displaying garments suspended on hangers in an orderly and attractive manner to the retail customer, it is often desired to affix an indicating means on the hanger in a position visible to the retail customer while the hanger is suspended on a rack. The indicating means identifies some attribute of the garment suspended from the hanger, such as size, quality, color, manufacturing data, or pattern.
To accommodate the various types of hangers available in the industry numerous indicating means have been developed in a variety of shapes, sizes and materials. Similarly, hangers have been developed to accommodate a variety of different indicating means.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,661 to Johansson a carrier attached to the bottom of a hook of a garment hanger is disclosed. A label may be adhered to or inserted in the carrier portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,024,953 to O'Keefe discloses a rectangular plastic guard which is adapted to be secured to the wire hook of a clothes hanger, and which extends upwardly therefrom to assist in preventing the clothes hangers from becoming entangled with one another.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,099,261 to Lewyt discloses a clothes hanger particularly adapted for hanging sets of furs, with a metal rectangular plate 10 which receives an index card describing the furs suspended therefrom and is positioned substantially between the hook and body portion of the hanger.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,940 to Phillips discloses an indicia-bearing tab which attaches to a member located substantially at the junction of both the hook and the body member.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 302,214 to Wilson includes two embodiments directed to ornamental designs for garment hangers which include a designated member for attaching an indicating means.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 244,197 to Ostroll discloses an ornamental design for a size indicator that is intended for attachment to a garment hanger.
The provision of a readily visible size indicator on a garment hanger is now accepted by retailers as a desirable addition to a garment hanger. The most widely accepted indicators have been manufactured by the applicant under Australian Patent No. 509042 (AU-B-42320/78 which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,902 to Lenthall) and Australian Patent No. 522614 (AU-B-55988/80). While the indicator disclosed in Australian Patent No. 509042 in particular has been well received by retailers in Australia, the desire of some retailers to reduce to a minimum the costs of hangers and indicators has meant that other manufacturers have developed less aesthetically pleasing alternatives to the indicator of the Australian Patent. In addition, differences in attitude have indicated that the "cap" indicator of Australian Patent No. 509042 may be regarded by some as being too bulky and dominant in the overall view of the hanger and the garments supported thereon.
The automated manufacture of hangers with indicators is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,806 assigned to the assignee of this invention, and the specification thereof is hereby incorporated herein by reference thereto. U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,806 describes a low-profile molded plastics indicator for garment hangers which requires modification to the hook of the hanger to enable the indicator to be securely attached to the top of the hook where it is most visible. The improvements described in the above patent overcame the major disadvantages of indicators of the type described in our U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,902. The indicator according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,806 is also designed to enable sorting into a predetermined orientation to enable automated handling and fitting of the indicators. For these reasons, the indicator has enjoyed considerable commercial success.
Other Indicators for hangers and hanger hooks for receiving indicators on disclosed are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,045,899 and German Offenlegangsschrift DE 3901086.